


Memores Acti Prudentes Futuri

by xvanus



Series: Aegri Somnia Vana [1]
Category: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (Video Games)
Genre: 2nd Dragoons, Anger, Angst, Death, Doc is angry, Ebola Crisis, Gen, Lion is a bit mean, Proper dialogue at the end, Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-21 12:45:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13741167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xvanus/pseuds/xvanus
Summary: "Nine people. Eleven if you count your previous mistakes. Eleven people are dead, eleven good people. They were all volunteer workers here. They just wanted to help. You killed them, Lion. Your mistakes sentenced them to death."OrThe story of the disaster during the West Africa Ebola crisis under Lion's leadership, and why Doc despises him.





	Memores Acti Prudentes Futuri

The situation in Guinea hadn’t been too bad to begin with.

Sure enough, they had faced threats from locals from the villages that they were co-ordinating with. Rumours had been spreading that the teams arriving weren’t here to help, that these foreign people were here to harvest the organs of local villagers and sell them off. The ones who managed to recover often didn’t help to abate those rumours either; they were clean, their reports showed that, but people were still fearful of those who had once had the virus. There was no chance for the survivors to tell other locals that the treatment was safe because of the fear that surrounded it.

That was the thing with Ebola. The outbreak didn’t just kill, it terrified people, and the teams who were here to help terrified people as well. The volunteer aid workers, the 2nd Dragoons, they were just here to help. Too many of the locals didn’t want it, though.

Lion didn’t want to give it either.

\------

Sure enough, he felt for everyone here. Families were being torn apart, people were suffering endlessly, but this… This wasn’t his job. He was meant to be out there dealing with biological weaponry. Bioterrorism was his thing, not sitting outside of a triage centre near these Guinean villages. He wasn’t meant to have to deal with people, trying to explain to them that they were here to help, what the outbreak meant and the best way to deal with it. He wasn’t good enough with words for all the talking, he couldn’t be soft like some of the doctors here. Quite frankly, he wanted to leave, get back out there and do a proper job.

Hell, this had supposed to have been a proper job, where he could lead and co-ordinate and command, but someone just had to come along and challenge that.

That was his first point of conflict with the bloody doctor.

Doc had been sent to annoy him, he was sure of it. The medic had been called up by the 2nd Dragoons and had practically waltzed in along with Lion, had greeted all of the health workers as if they were old friends and then had basically took charge of their entire operation. The worst part of it was the fact that everyone listened to him. They had been sent to provide disinfection for the medical workers, not to take over from them, but that was exactly what the doctor had done. It annoyed Lion to high Hell. He had to admit, though, that all of a sudden the medical team had become more efficient according to the reports, people were being triaged and sent through the risk zones more swiftly, disinfection protocols were emphasised and put into place...

Despite the increase of efficiency, he still couldn’t help but dislike what was going on. All of this co-ordination was meant to be his job. He had been asked to lead the Dragoons for a reason. And he was going to have to implement some changes quickly if he wanted to keep control of that leadership.

\------

The first thing that he had done was to tell Doc that he could either act as part of the Dragoons, or as one of the humanitarian volunteers. That one had pissed him off immediately. Lion had to admit that maybe he was being harsh in his actions here; sure, Doc was being downright annoying, but he was probably trying to help. He could comprehend something in this situation that Lion couldn’t, you see. He could practically feel the suffering of these people, feel their fear and their tension and pain. But honestly, Lion didn’t envy him on that one.

The thing was, though, that sometimes, caring too much wasn’t a positive trait. Only Lion seemed to see what was going on here; the rising complaints and even threats from the villagers towards the health professionals went unheard to the others, including Doc. For someone with military training the man was really fucking oblivious. Lion knew that caring in this case wasn’t going to be suitable. This had to be a swift and efficient operation. Introduce disinfectant protocols. Restrict access to those who were confirmed to have Ebola. Care for those who were suffering as best as you could; bury those who didn’t survive and make sure that the families didn’t try to touch the bodies. Although, he did sympathise with that part.

The families wanted to go through with their burial rites, washing the deceased’s body and continuing their traditions. He could get that, sure; it was a religious thing, and that was something he understood. What he didn’t get was the fact that the families couldn’t comprehend the necessity for the safe burials, to make sure that the disease didn’t spread…

That point was how the first death of their team happened, actually.

\------

The nurse had just been a young woman. She had just wanted to help, and her efforts to help had landed her in a grave.

She had been sent to inform one of the families of the death of their relative. The man – who had been that woman’s husband, those people’s father – had died. The nurse had tried to explain that the doctors had done all they could, that the disease wasn’t curable, that they had to conduct a specialised burial to make sure it didn’t spread – her words hadn’t been good enough, though. They were grieving, and it was too much for them. The son of the deceased had attacked the nurse, screaming, crying out that they hadn’t done enough. Lion doubted that he had intended upon killing her, but the punch had been too strong; she had been knocked over instantly, her head splitting as it hit the rock below.

Lion had grabbed hold of the man but by then he was too late, and the man had stopped screaming when he saw what he had done. The family had ran then and Lion had been incapable of stopping them – he was too busy staring at the blood pooling below the nurse’s head. He was here to help the medical workers, him and the Dragoons. And so far, he was failing.

\------

From then on, his attitude turned against the locals even more. He was determined to make sure that the workers were kept safe – he knew that the man who had attacked the nurse had been angry, had been in pain, but he had killed someone, and if the same feelings spread through the entirety of the villages then they were sure to turn against the medical workers here. He stationed guards outside of the volunteer grounds; if they weren’t working on disinfection, then they were on patrol. Doc had instantly turned on him for that one; the disinfection protocols were more important, he had said, the guards weren’t needed. They would know if public opinion turned against them, it was their job to provide disinfection for the workers, if they weren’t doing that then they weren’t doing their job.

When Lion hadn’t replied the to his complaints the doctor had stormed off back inside the medical tent again – he had spent most of his time with them helping them treat the ill rather than working with the rest of the Dragoons. Talk about not doing your job, fucking hypocrite.

Maybe he should have listened to Doc’s advice in the first place, though, because the second death happened not too long after that.

\------

Another one of the volunteers – this foolish young nurse, barely out of med school, God knows what he was doing here – had slipped past the correct procedures for disinfection. They were meant to go in two at a time, that way there was always someone to make sure that your kit was on correctly, that you were safe, but this kid had just wanted to get the job over and done with. Fucking idiot.

And of course, the kid got infected – just his luck. He had tried to ignore the symptoms as well, passing it off as being too hot from the high temperatures, too tired from the workload. Doc had been the one to catch on and threatened the kid – if you don’t go to triage right now I will not hesitate to draw my gun on you, you are actively endangering the lives of the entirety of your team – and eventually the stupid kid had gone. He had gone without a gun being drawn on him as well, but everyone knew that he had been shaken by Doc’s words. The man could be nice to his patients, but he could turn into a right son of a bitch when angered. In this case, the anger was quite right too.

They were lucky that the kid hadn’t managed to infect any of the team, actually – he had been out of the risk zones long enough to. He had contracted the disease of course, fucking idiot, and despite the care that his colleagues offered there was nothing that they could do. Another member of the medical team was down – and Lion couldn’t help but feel like he was to blame.

\------

Just when he thought that things couldn’t get any worse – he had failed to protect the medical team, half of the medics were starting to ignore him, Doc included – reports of raids on the villages began to come in. Rumour even said that people had been killed in the raid, but no one could confirm the number. No one knew who the raiders were either which made things even more complicated. Some said they were from gangs, others said that they had been pirates in the Gulf of Guinea who had turned to the land. Some said that they were rebels getting ready to go against the government, and then there those who thought too kindly of them said that they were people impacted by the crisis who were starving and in desperate need of supplies.

Lion didn’t care much for the reasons for them attacking the villages, he just knew that it was bound to cause more trouble. All of the aid charities were quick to help the villagers, they sent crate after crate of supplies; and Lion sent a number of his Dragoons to keep watch over the villages. Maybe if he could show them that they were there to help, then he could improve the relations between them. Maybe the hostility of the villagers towards the Dragoons and the volunteers could stop.

Everyone seemed to be on high alert from then on; the charities continued their efforts but you could feel the tension between the workers, the number of local villagers who came for treatment multiplied as they realised that the triage grounds were somewhere that they could be safe. With the increased number of people showing up, though, it meant that the medical supplies were dwindling. They put out the call for more supplies and the aid charities said that they would be provided; the delivery would be made to one of the villages, though, and so they would have to go out and collect it themselves.

Lion didn’t like the idea of having to go out into the villages. He didn’t fear the villagers, and he didn’t fear the raiders that had plagued them – he feared having to leave the teams to fend for themselves. He was certain that his men could do it, they were trained, they knew how to fend for themselves. A certain someone just had to protest, though. Doc, of course, wasn’t happy with the plan. He said that the number of Dragoons helping the volunteer teams was small enough as it was, what with the others being out protecting the villages, and that it was an obvious opportunity for the raiders to turn on the health workers. He said that both triage and the building the volunteers were using for barracks needed protecting, and he knew that there weren’t enough men to do that.

The two had argued for hours on the subject until Lion had become enraged, finally standing up for himself and telling the doctor that he needed to remember that he was following the orders of a superior. He decided that he would head out to the village along with six of the Dragoons – Doc included in that number, he wasn’t leaving him here to try to usurp his leadership again – and they would collect the supplies and head back immediately. He would set up surveillance drones to make sure that everyone was where they were meant to be, and that no one was trying to get in. The guards would be stationed around the triage centre, and no one would get in or out. It would be fine.

At least, he thought it would be fine.

\------

They had set out for the village early in the day, armed and walking in a tight formation just in case something was to happen. Lion would have preferred to take the one of the Jeeps that belonged to the army with them, but had decided that they were better off left with the volunteer groups just in case a quick getaway was required. Despite their apprehensions the trip had been relatively easy; the only downside had been the torrential rain – typical that they’d get sent out during the rainiest time of the year – and the complete lack of silence that had fallen over the group. It was if the other Dragoons could sense the tension between Lion and Doc; they didn’t want to get involved or make the situation worse, and so they didn’t speak at all.

Everything was in order when they got to the village, surprisingly. Lion had been sure that something would go wrong, but everything was fine; the locals were all accommodating now that they had come to trust the Dragoons more. They had spent the majority of the day distributing whatever equipment they didn’t need after that – you lot want these mosquito nets? Of course you can have them, we’ve got enough in storage – and had loaded the equipment up and set off again. The rain had ceased for a while, and the walk back seemed peaceful with the relative silence and the stars starting to shine above them, but that was when everything went wrong.

\------

A single phone call ruined it all.

They stopped in the middle of the path back for Lion to answer the call, and as soon as he listened, they set off running. There had been reports of gunfire – not from the triage centre, but from the old ramshackle building that the voluntary staff had re-purposed as their barracks for the time being, solely because all of their tents were being used to set up triage zones. One of the Dragoons said that they had immediately set off towards the barracks but Lion had ordered them back in place; if something was to happen to the centre as well then he wanted his men to be there to help defend it. He said a few words to assure the soldier on the other end of the line that it was probably nothing and that everyone would be fine; after all, why would they go for the barracks? They would go for the triage centre, that was where the supplies were, and he knew the triage centre was fine because his surveillance drone hadn’t alerted him to any changes.

The only thing was, though, that his drone didn’t cover the area surrounding the volunteer’s barracks… And he hadn’t sent any of his men to guard it either. He had wanted to ensure that everyone at the centre was safe – that was where the majority of workers and all of their patients were – and so he had opted not to split his soldiers up even more. He had thought it would be fine. After all, if you wanted supplies you would go to the centre, everyone knew that was where all of the equipment was held. But what if they thought that the barracks would have equipment in store too? Or what if the rebels – or whoever they were – were just trying to make a statement? Or, he had thought to himself, trying to stop the rising panic, what if it was just a rumour and nothing was wrong?

He silently prayed that nothing was wrong.

That prayer wasn’t answered.

\------

Instead of going back to the centre to unload their equipment they proceeded straight to the volunteer barracks, instantly on high alert as they got closer. The first things they noticed was that there were tyre tracks in the mud, like someone had been in a hurry to drive away. The the wooden door at the front of the building had been knocked back off its hinges, there were bullet holes patterning the walls – and there was the distinct acrid smell in the air, one that Lion knew too well. He glanced back at his team then, the weight of their expressions conveying that they all feared the worst.

As soon as they entered the building Doc pushed ahead, pistol raised as he methodically swept the first few rooms. Lion wanted to stop him, to say that he should go first instead, but he knew that if there was the chance that people were hurt then nothing was going to stop the doctor from going to their aid. It only took a matter of seconds for them to check that the bottom floor was clear before proceeding upstairs to the sleeping quarters.

The first thing that Lion spotted was the fact that everything seemed to be red. In the entirety of his military career, he had never seen that amount of blood anywhere. In the two rooms that hosted the bunk beds that the aid workers had been using, everything was red and polka-dot patterned by bullet holes. ‘Everything’ also included the people.

They were all slumped over where they slept. They would have looked almost peaceful if it hadn’t been for the blood pooling beneath them.

Doc made his way forwards again, surveying the room and blinking slowly. He likely already knew what the outcome was going to be, but nevertheless he made his way through the volunteers, checking one, then two, then three… The number ended up at nine in total. Everyone knew what was going to be said before the doctor even confirmed it. He rose slowly from his position of checking the last person, turned, and merely shook his head. Lion picked up on the fleeting glance between the doctor and the last of the medical staff he had checked as well – the lingering gaze, the slightly dazed expression. This one had been a friend.

\------

He ordered the rest of his men outside then, telling them to get on the line to the charities, the army, the local police – whoever would listen. Somebody needed to get here to sort the situation out, because he sure as Hell wasn’t going to sort out this mess. This mess. His mess.

In the corridor he was stopped suddenly by a voice from behind him. He had never truly dreaded hearing that voice until now.

“There were no soldiers outside.”

When Lion opted not to reply the voice continued, slowly and painfully, like the words were trying to drive into him and tear him apart.

“You thought that you wouldn’t have enough men to guard both here and the triage, what with the others being out in the villages to protect the locals. You sent the rest of the soldiers to the triage. You didn’t appoint any of them to take guard here.”

Silence was taken for an agreement then.

“You listened to me when I said that there wouldn’t be enough people to guard the triage and the barracks. So instead of sending people to both, you made them stay at one place. And _look_ where it got you.”

He had never heard the doctor speak with such venom before.

“ _Nine people_. Eleven if you count your previous mistakes. Eleven people are dead, eleven good people. They were all volunteer workers here. They just wanted to help! You killed them, Lion. Your mistakes sentenced them to death.”

He started walking again then, practically growling under his breath – there were things to do, people to report to, supplies to distribute and people to protect, he wasn’t going to deal with the anger of one doctor right now. This was his fault, he knew that, but he had been doing it to protect the others. It was just misfortunate, he couldn’t have fucking predicted this. He would ignore the doctor. He had things to do.

“Veronica Meyer.”

What?

“Keiron Schmidt.”

He wasn’t actually going to do this, was he?

“Kayla Moreno.”

God, he actually fucking was.

“Jasper Santos-”

“I don’t care about their fucking names!”

That stopped the doctor. Lion turned around to glare at him, stalking back across the corridor until the two stood face to face. He glared down at Doc and was glared up at in return – he swore that he had never seen someone so desolate yet so angry before. He braced himself for another bloody speech – and found himself being punched in the face instead.

He couldn’t comprehend anything but the continuous shouting in between every hit – “they died because of you! All of those innocent people! Because of your mistakes! Because! Of your! Mistakes!” Hell, he could barely even raise his hands to defend himself.

As soon as Lion heard the accent slide he knew that the doctor had snapped. He pushed back then, using the same tactic in response, punching the doctor repeatedly before pushing him up against the wall. It went eerily silent then – instead of being met with a struggle the doctor merely looked at him, beginning to laugh harshly, uncontrollably, as the blood dripped down his face. Lion stepped back then, letting Doc sink to the floor against the wall, and the only thing that he could hear was Doc’s laughter becoming more and more hysterical as he tried to back away.

As he left the doctor on the floor and turned away, he couldn't help but realise that the man was right. They had died because of him. Because of his mistakes. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! The title means "mindful of what has been done, aware of what will be" for those who are interested. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't entirely sure of how to go about writing this, but I desperately wanted to get it down because it was all I could think about. I'm yet to decide if I like Lion or not - he seems to think that he's doing his job (i.e. in this disaster he was protecting some while others died,) but I do feel as if he would be at least a bit guilty about it. Doc evidently doesn't deal well with it - hmm, I could make a sequel out of this...


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